Student Showcase 2026 is Here!
32nd GPSC STUDENT SHOWCASE
2026 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) invites graduate, professional, and undergraduate students from all disciplines to apply for the 2026 Student Showcase! This is your opportunity to present your research or creative projects to your peers, faculty and the University of Arizona community while competing for monetary awards. Participants and attendees will engage in meaningful dialogue, discover groundbreaking ideas, and celebrate the scholarly excellence that defines the University of Arizona.
Event Details
- Date: Wednesday, March 18th, 2026, 7am – 1pm
- Location: Student Union Grand Ballroom, University of Arizona
- Eligible Participants: All UofA Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional Students
- Eligible Projects: Research projects that have been completed or are works-in-progress (at or beyond the stage of data analysis with preliminary or expected findings), completed professional development projects with outcomes, or completed artistic projects, theses, or capstones.
Presentation Format
- In-Person: The 2026 Student Showcase is an on-site event. Virtual or remote presentations are not available.
- Poster Presentations: All participants are expected to present their work via a physical poster. For poster printing, see https://biocom.arizona.edu/services/posters or check with your college’s technology team for poster printing options.
- All accepted proposals will have 5 mins to present their work to a set of judges and be scored on various criteria. The accepted proposals will receive a copy of the scoresheet to help prepare for the short oral presentations.
- Materials Provided: GPSC will provide one standard poster board per presenter.
Important 2026 Dates & Deadlines
- February 9: Applications officially open.
- February 27: Submission Deadline (11:59 PM).
- February 28 – March 1: Review and selection period.
- March 2: Notification of acceptance sent to all applicants.
- March 18: 2026 Student Showcase (7:30 AM Check-In, 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM at the Student Union Grand Ballroom).
To submit a proposal please click the link: https://forms.gle/LNGeUzwPyDkrVjFP6
Over one hundred and fifty students participated in this exhibition of undergraduate and graduate scholarship demonstrating the wide spectrum of University student research projects. Student Showcase offers students a significant forum for communicating the importance of their research to the broader University of Arizona community.
Implemented in 1992-93 by the GPSC, Student Showcase represents a campus-wide student-run research exhibition at the University of Arizona. Students who participate in this event can be proud of their efforts and academic achievements. Demonstrating the valuable research that takes place at the University, Student Showcase also has the honor of including state representatives and many other community members as judges.
Note that the categories are topic dependent, and does not apply to which academic area you are from. The categories are self-select, but the GPSC committee retains the right to decide on which category you should be in.
Previously, over $15,000 was awarded in prizes to graduate and undergraduate students in a wide variety of disciplines and cross-disciplines.
Traditional Categories
Knowledge, Communication, and Meaning-Making: Projects focused on how knowledge is created, interpreted, represented, and shared across contexts. Includes themes related to: Communication, media, and digital storytelling. Education, pedagogy, and learning sciences. Arts, humanities, and creative scholarship, public scholarship and science communication.
Equity, Culture, and Social Systems: Projects examining people, identities, institutions, and power within social, cultural, political, and economic systems. Includes themes related to equity, justice, and inclusion research. Including community-engaged and participatory research, policy, governance, and social movements, identity, culture, language, and lived experiences.
Innovation, Technology, and Design for Impact: Projects that develop or apply tools, technologies, methods, or systems to address real-world challenges. Includes themes related to: Technology, engineering, and applied sciences. Digital humanities and computational research. Entrepreneurship and translational research. Human-centered, ethical, and responsible design.
Health, Environment, and Sustainable Futures: Projects that advance human, ecological, and planetary well-being across local to global scales. Includes themes related to: Physical and mental health. Public health and population studies. Environmental science and climate research. Sustainability, resilience, and future-oriented systems
Creative Project, Art, or Performance: Projects that may not be research based but highlight the works you are doing in your creative field (Art, Photography, Architecture, etc.) such as completed artistic projects, theses, or capstones.
Other: Cross-Cutting, Interdisciplinary, and Emerging Inquiry: Projects that do not fit neatly within a single category or represents emerging, exploratory, or hybrid forms of scholarship.
Traditional Category Awards
| Communication + Expression (graduate) | First | Deborah Ruiz | MFA Studio Art - Illustration, Design, + Animation Emphasis |
| Second | Heather Gahler | PhD Candidate, Communication | |
| Community, Culture, Society (graduate) | First | Kevin McBeth | PhD Candidate, Educational Leadership and Policy |
| Second | Hyeonchang Gim | PhD Candidate, Communication | |
| Human Health (graduate) | First | Shelby Ziller | PhD Candidate, Epidemiology |
| Second | Brian Patrick Toner | PhD Candidate, Applied Mathematics | |
| Environmental Impact (graduate) | Tie | Tshering Sherpa | PhD Candidate, Geosciences |
| Tie | Jake Dean | M.A. Latin American Studies | |
| Tech + Innovation (graduate) | First | - | - |
| Second | - | - | |
Provosts' Special Award Categories | |||
| - | - | - | |
| Sponsored Awards | |||
| Willock Award | Tshering Lama Sherpa | PhD Candidate, Geosciences | |
| Jake Dean | M.A. Latin American Studies | ||
| Shelby Ziller | PhD Candidate, Epidemiology | ||
| Bio5 Award | Deborah Ruiz | MFA Studio Art - Illustration, Design, + Animation Emphasis | |